Description
Crocus vaclavii has pale purple-white flowers with thin purple stripes on the exterior and a golden-yellow throat inside. The anthers are black, or partially black before they ripen, at which point they too become the golden yellow colour of their pollen. The leaves are thin and unobtrusive.
This appears to grow well, potted, in a loam-based compost under alpine glass. Ours sit outside, but covered over summer, rather than being left to bake. It is early days but with hand-pollination it sets good seed which germinated well and the corms increase pleasingly by division.
It is only known from Greece and this very striking Greek species is in fact known only within Greece from the religious enclave of the Athous Pensinsula were it grows at sea level within feet of the Mediterranean sea. A most unusual situation for a Crocus, or indeed for any bulb. It was first reported in 1914 and again in 1944 but was not introduced to cultivation until 2013 when it was re-discovered and collected by Janis Ruksans.
